Oswald+Glasberg

At 11 AM on October 17, 1947, Dr. Paul Singer, a gynecologist, called police and reported that a woman had come to his office suffering from an incomplete abortion.

He said that he had taken 22-year-old Jane Ward, heir to the Drake Bakeries fortune, to Park East Hospital, where 49-year-old Dr. Oswald "Waldja" Glasberg, a plastic surgeon, had helped him to complete the abortion.

Jane died on October 28, and the autopsy confirmed the cause of death as criminal abortion.

After the death, Singer and Glasberg were arrested and released on bail. The baby's father, Eduardo Schneidewind, a trade promotion executive for a South American government, was questioned as a material witness but was never indicted.

Glassberg was found guilty at nearly midnight on July 13, 1948 and taken to jail to await sentencing. He had threatened to kill himself if convicted, so guards checked on him every half hour. During the 5 a.m. check, a guard found Glasberg unconscious. By the time a doctor arived, Glasberg was dead. An autopsy confirmed that he had committed suicide by cyanide.

"Man Convicted in Abortion Case Discovered Dead," Kingsport Times, July 15, 1948 "Surgeon Convicted in Abortion Death Takes Life in Cell," Pottstown (PA) Mercury, July 16, 1948 //The Participating Citizen, a Biography of Alfred Schutz//, Michael D. Barber,